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[ Fourth Industrial Revolution ]







                                          by Jessica Andrews-Hanna


                                          Fitness Tracker for Your Mind


                                          Inside our thoughts and emotions




                                            ake a moment to reflect on the landscape of your inner mental experience — the thoughts,
                                          Tfeelings and emotions that have shaped you into the person you are today.
                                             What do you think about on a day-to-day basis? Are your thoughts a source of happiness,
                                          creativity and inspiration? Or do they fuel distress, anxiety and distraction?
                                             Despite its importance for our cognitive and mental well-being, the nature of daily thinking
                                          remains a mystery, largely because thoughts are hidden and difficult to study.
                                             The Neuroscience of Emotion and Thought Lab at the University of Arizona, together with
                                          researchers at the University of Colorado, is trying to fill this gap in our scientific understanding
                                          of the mind by taking advantage of smartphone technology. They recently developed a free
                                          mobile Android app called Where’s My Mind? that sends users surveys at random moments to
                                          capture the nature of their mental experience.
                    Download the
                                          HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
              Where’s My Mind?               After downloading the app, users are   The researchers are building a large, anonymous
                                          provided details about the research study.   international database of daily thinking patterns
          app in the Google Play          Next, they are asked to answer questions   and are excited to already have over 1,000
                                          assessing their demographic characteristics   international users.
                                                                                   As the database grows, they are starting to gain
         store. Researchers plan          and aspects of their personality, goals and   important insight into the Four C’s of thinking:
                                          well-being.
                                             These questions will give the researchers   1.  Content. What do people typically think about
           to develop the app for         a better sense of who is using the app and   in day-to-day life?
                                          reveal how daily thinking patterns differ   2. Context. How do thoughts typically change as
          iOS in the coming year.         across people.                             a function of what people are doing, such as
                                             Following these questions, the app helps   working or procrastinating?
                                          users track their thoughts over time. It   3. Correlates. How do thoughts differ across
                                          does so by sending the user’s device a push   people of different ages, cultures and outlook
                                          notification four random times each day    on life? How do thoughts relate to mental
                                          during specified waking hours.             health, including depression and anxiety?
                                             Users can choose to ignore the push or   4. Consequences. Are certain types of thoughts
                                          answer a short survey about the nature of   helpful or harmful for our cognitive and
                                          their thoughts, mood and activities right   emotional well-being?
                                          before they received the notification.   One class of thoughts the researchers are trying
                                             After completing roughly a week of   to understand is often called “mind-wandering.”
                                          thought surveys, the app will show users   We all have the experience of mind-wandering,
                                          helpful graphs of their daily thought   but we do so in different ways and with different
                                          patterns, and users can choose to see how   consequences.
                                          their thoughts compare with the average   The researchers want to understand both the
                                          user. The graphs will be updated as users   costs and benefits of mind-wandering. A large
                                          continue to use the app and as the database   user database will be critical to answering these
                                          grows.                                questions.





        26  ARIZONA ALUMNI MAGAZINE
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